Thyroid gland

“ Thyroid gland was introduced for the treatment of patients suffering from goitre, myxoedema and cretinism, in which diseases it has been remarkably successful, cretins growing rapidly under the thyroid treatment and developing intelligence. It has also been used in dwarfism, excessive obesity, psoriasis and scleroderma. When used in obesity an excess of nitrogenous food should be taken to balance the destruction of proteid. ”

“ This feat is now accomplished successfully by our most skillful surgeons, and the result has been the restoring to health and happiness of large numbers of people whose lives were rendered miserable through no fault of their own, but because their thyroid glands had become unduly active. We do not know how the thyroid gland itself is controlled; there is evidently something which causes it in the vast majority of us to produce its hormone at the rate which keeps the metabolism steady at what we look upon as the level of health. Deficient thyroid is, at least in some cases, hereditary. ”

“ The thyroxin in the tissues diminishes after a period of great exertion, the thyroxin probably being carried back to the thyroid gland and kept there as reserve until further demand. So it has been discovered that during the winter months, the thyroid glands of beef, sheep and hogs all contain much less iodine than during the summer months. During the winter months, manifestly, more energy is required to maintain body temperature, hence the gland surrenders more of its secretion to the tissues and so keeps less of it itself. ”

“ All toxic products which are the causes of infection act upon the thyroid gland, this organ, through increased activity, produces symptoms such as we see in Graves’s disease. That these symptoms, especially abundant perspiration, polyuria, and diarrhœa, typical in some infectious diseases, may be considered as the direct consequence of thyroid activity, can best be shown by the fact that the thyroid gland governs the functions of the skin, intestines, and kidneys. ”

“ The thyroid probably performs these functions by sending its secretion to the cells directly responsible for the immunity reactions, and stimulating them to activity.
A sketch of the thyroid like the foregoing shows it as the wondrous controller of vitality and growth, and indefatigable protector against intoxicants and injuries. When it is sufficiently active, life is worth while; when it is defective, life is a difficult threatening blackness. That would make it out as the gland of glands. It is tremendously important, without a doubt, in normal everyday life. ”

“ The thyroid belongs to the class of glands known as ductless—that is, there is no canal or duct by which the secretions of the gland are carried out. Its function, like the function of the other ductless glands (the spleen, the thymus, and the adrenal bodies) , is but imperfectly understood. ”

“ In a Scyllium embryo belonging to the early part of stage K, the thyroid gland presented the same arrangement as in the Torpedo embryo just described, with the exception that no solid posterior section of it was present.
Towards the close of stage K the thyroid body begins to elongate and become solid, though it still retains its attachment to the wall of the œsophagus. The solidification is effected by the columnar cells which line the groove elongating and meeting in the centre. ”

“ Throughout the vertebrate kingdom it is possible to compare the thyroid gland of one group of animals with that of another without coming across any very marked difference of structure right down to and including Petromyzon. When, however, we examine Ammocœtes, we find that the thyroid has suddenly become an organ of much more complicated structure, covering a much larger space, and bearing no resemblance to the thyroid glands of the higher forms. ”

“ That the thyroid gland affects the intellect is also proved by the very important fact that the serum of animals whose thyroid has been extirpated, and which is thus antagonistic to the thyroid gland, is able to impair the intellect. ”

“ This gland is now known to manufacture and pour out into the blood a hormone which is a regulator of metabolism. When it is produced in normal amounts, the metabolism goes on at the rate that we find in healthy people. If the gland is inactive and does not secrete enough of the hormone, there is a reduction in the metabolism. Since this implies a lowering of the vigor of the life processes, we might expect it to have important effects. The most marked of these are in the nervous system. Persons whose thyroid glands are relatively inactive are mentally sluggish ”

“ Many scientists, however, consider it possible to keep the thyroid gland active for at least three or four days after its removal—if the thing is packed in ice. That'll help a great deal. I intend shipping the apes to Walfisch Bay, and then taking the glands by 'plane to a convenient spot in the Kalahari Desert—one of the healthiest places in the world. It is there that we shall establish the great Hospital for the Rejuvenation of the Aged. ”

“ From the foregoing it is obvious what an important organ we possess in the thyroid gland, and that by its degeneration, as in the state of myxœdema or in the much more frequent athyroidia, we become more exposed to all kinds of poisonous products; but what renders its degeneration a still graver misfortune for us, is the fact that it is apt to bring about the degeneration also of other organs which destroy and eliminate poisonous products, viz.: the liver, kidneys, intestines, and skin. ”

“ It seems to follow from these observations that persons with a good sound thyroid have a better chance in fighting infections and intoxications than persons with a degenerated thyroid. In persons with an active thyroid, an increased activity of the gland, and thus a better functioning of the eliminative organs which are governed by it, can take place more easily than in persons with a degenerated thyroid, and, in consequence, with a dry skin, constipated bowels, and lazy kidneys. ”

“ I shall limit myself to saying that the presence of the normal thyroid gland is necessary for health, and that it is supposed that the secretion of the gland, which enters the blood-current directly, either neutralizes some poison which, from the ordinary processes of life, is circulating in the blood, or furnishes to the blood some substance which is necessary to it. ”

“ Whether this iodid or iodin acts per se, or acts by stimulating the thyroid gland to increased activity and therefore to more normal activity, so that it is the thyroid secretion which is of benefit, it is difficult to decide. In view of the fact that in advanced years the thyroid is always subsecreting, and after the very diseases which cause arteriosclerosis or during the diseases which cause arterinsclernsis the thyroid is generally subsecreting, it would appear that the value of iodin is in its effect in stimulating the thyroid gland. ”

“ Now, secretions of the thyroid gland check this aggression of the lower upon the higher cells, as is shown in the studies of cretinism, which is in so many respects nothing but premature old age brought on because the thyroid fluid, the special function of which was to retard this process, was not supplied; and when it fails, old age comes on precipitately and even children often look and act much like prematurely old men and women. ”

“ In some females the diseased gland grows to a large size without producing any, or only trifling inconvenience—a little difficulty of breathing in walking up hill. Persons afflicted with this unsightly complaint, are chiefly, but not universally, females: in one or two instances I have observed male children born with a decided fullness and enlargement of the thyroid gland. ”

“ Although I don't pretend to understand very much about medical science, I do know that thyroid gland secretion has a remarkably stimulating effect on the mental faculties. With too little of it, one is dull and [Pg 76] lifeless; with too much of it, one is active and highly strung. Could it be that Alfred's glands were too vigorous, and that what was normally good for monkey was abnormally bad for man? It was a very discomfiting thought, and I grew so alarmed at Gran'pa's condition that I decided to get him a bromide draught. ”

“ Its bad effects upon the thyroid have already been referred to in the chapter on the hygiene of the thyroid gland. It would be more reasonable to wear a low collar, turned down, and of soft linen, as worn by our forefathers. Women may have this privilege, but, sad to say, they do not avail themselves of it, but instead, in many instances, cover their necks, and even more than their neck, by impermeable materials. Yet the neck is one of the parts of the human frame where many sudorific glands are situated and where we perspire freely. ”

“ While the functions of this little organ are not yet very clearly understood, there is nothing more definitely known than its tremendous importance in the bodily economy. Without it there can be no such thing as healthy development. Thyroid deficiency in children gives rise to a form of idiocy, bodily malformation and degeneracy known as cretinism, while in adult life it is associated with a similar disorder known as myxedema. Goiter is the most common disorder of the thyroid gland ”

“ Thyroid gland administered to man increases the pulse rate, causes increased and enfeebled cardiac beat and leads to increased metabolism, consequently excess of urea, uric acid and phosphates are excreted in the urine ”

“ These glands are quite often partly and accidentally removed during operations on the thyroid gland in man, with alarming and sometimes fatal results. Following complete removal of the parathyroid glands, carnivorous animals, including man, die within from four to six days. ”

“ Scattered instances have been reported of children growing, putting on inches in height and expanding mentally, when thymus was fed to them, in whom every other measure previously tried had failed. A French study of over four hundred idiotic children with normal thyroids reported that over three fourths had no thymus at all. Everything points to the most direct and close relation between the gland and nutrition and growth, but with nothing tangibly definite like our knowledge of the thyroid and the pituitary. ”